• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Behaviour

Rabbit3456

New Kit
Hi!

I'm a little concerned about my rabbit's behaviour. We bought our first rabbits 3 years ago in Dec 16 (Butters & Oscar), They were happy rabbits and it got to the point that any sort of food we have they would climb all over us, they'd be on our shoulders while we were on the sofa! (Oscar was more skiddish than the other but he got over it in the end. Knocking over our beer bottles was their favourite game!).

Sadly, Oscar passed away in September '17 so we made sure to spend more time with butters as we were worried about him coping with the loss. Eventually he got back to normal.

In March '18, we introduced a new rabbit.. Patches. We've had patches a year and a half now. In our old house both Butters and Patches bonded well, they cuddle up to each other, groom and relaxed outside the cage.

In April '19, me and my partner moved house. This seems to have had a big impact. Butters is still cheeky sometimes (His old self) coming out the cage to explore..Following us upstairs... which he's not allowed to do! We even let them have supervised free roam in the garden sometimes as the garden is secure. Butters goes in and out as he pleases, as the cage can be seen from the door, they always know they are near their hide-out. Patches, not so much. We have to pick her up and place her by the door (We don't force her outside) she'll then hop in and out but stays VERY close to the house, but won't go back to the cage, even tho she can see it.

The only difference I can think of is that the new house has laminate rather than carpet but we have tried laying rugs and blankets down.

Sorry for the long post! But I was wondering if anyone has any advice? I'd at least like Patches to get to the stage where she can leave the cage as I don't like the idea of her being in the cage all the time..

And, do you think us introducing Patches, caused Butters to pull away from us?


(My profile picture is Butters (Ginger rabbit) and Oscar)
 
Last edited:
I'm wondering if your house's old occupants had pets of their own? Perhaps a lingering smell of dog or cat is making patches feel like she doesn't want to go too far from her safe space?

Try providing additional hiding places outside of the cage for her. A tunnel (even just a 6" bit of plastic pipe from B&Q) by the back door leading from the door to the grass. Add some little tents, tunnels, wooden houses indoors, near to the back door and along the route from the cage to the door. I've found that helpful for our bun, who was nervous to leave his safe space in the past. The less time exposed the better in their mind :)

Rabbits do have different personalities around different buns. Butters might have felt egged on by Oscar to be more confident, but he'll be trying to avoid being quite so confident if he's paired with a nervous bunny, or at least that's my experience from our two buns.
 
Back
Top